Age-restricted development planned for Buzzards Bay

Friday

Jun 23, 2017 at 3:50 PMJun 23, 2017 at 3:50 PM

By Paul Gately

An age-restricted independent living center is being planned on the former Byron property in Buzzards Bay.

Calamar Enterprise of North Andover plans to build the 120-unit center off Perry Avenue and Main Street. The center, to be called The Tides at Bourne, would be next door to the Keystone Place assisted living center and adjacent to both a planned Hampton Inn and a restaurant with a rooftop bar.

The new center would include 50 garages with canal access and a pedestrian walkway to Main Street between Buzzards Bay Veterinary Associates and Coastal Motors. Rent would command between $1,300 to $1,700 per month. Rentals would be restricted to tenants 55 and older.

Plans for the Complex do not include food facilities, a group dining area, or a medical unit.

During an informal discussion with the Bourne Planning Board on June 22, Calamar said at most of its complexes, the average age of tenants is 73 and most occupants are women.

Associates said they want to market The Tides as a place for “active people wanting to live life to its fullest”, and tenants who do not want to be labeled or classified as living in a senior center.

Calamar representatives said The Tides would not be an assisted living center. Rather, it would be part of “a senior campus” with Keystone. One and two-bedroom units would make up The Tides complex, while 12 units would be set aside for low-income tenants.

Hampton Inn developer Ryan Correia told the planning board that The Tides would reflect what planners seek for Buzzards Bay, would not impact the school system, and would “be a plus for restaurants.”

Planning board member Lou Gallo wondered if Bourne was attracting development that will crowd it with elderly apartments. But the initial presentation otherwise seemed to hit favorable notes with planners, three of whom were newly elected in May.

Board chairman Elmer Clegg praised the proposal, which is still in the engineering phase.

“I view this as a positive development,” he said. “We need business. But we have to boost the population. Business won’t come here until we have a population built on demographics, including money to spend in those businesses.”

Board member Bob Gendron also spoke in support of The Tides. Gendron has land purchased at Wagner Way off Main Street where he, too, is proposing an assisted living center. But he hasn’t been able to secure a wastewater allocation for his plan from selectmen, acting as sewer commissioners.

Town Planner Coreen Moore said that Calamar faces a sizeable hurdle in developing The Tides. Most notably, the project must pass muster with the Cape Cod Commission for Phase II development in the Buzzards Bay downtown growth development zone (GIZ).

For local planners to ultimately approve The Tides, she said, the project would have to include some sort of off-site mitigation in town. That could include an open space purchase or perhaps a zoning change.

Moore said there is precious little open space remaining for purchase. A zoning change, meanwhile, would have to be approved through Town Meeting, possibly in October.

But Moore said she wasn’t sure if a zoning change request could be prepared in time for a fall session.

“Project mitigation might be a frustrating factor,” she said.

Clegg provided another reservation involving proposed pedestrian access to the canal via The Tides. He said the walkway from Main Street to the units might be favored by some tenants, but not by others who might not want the general public reaching the waterway through their apartment complex.

Clegg said his board would also “pay particular attention” to the privacy needs and expectations of neighboring property owners on Perry Avenue.

Calamar, meanwhile, will retain a traffic engineering firm to look at motoring issues in the neighborhood, especially that of motorists trying to turn into Main Street traffic from Perry Avenue.

Calamar hopes to secure overall project approval by this fall, with construction to follow shortly thereafter. An opening occupancy rate would be figured at 35 percent to meet company objectives.

In addition to Keystone Place, Buzzards Bay village is also home to elderly units at Bourne Oaks off Head of the Bay Road, as well as senior apartments in the Continental Apartments off Belmont Circle.